Decontamination!

So yes... here I am. At my desk. 6 hours after writing the previous post about hats!
I love hats. I love making hats. Making hats is fun.
I sound like a weirdo now.
Alrighty then.
A few months ago I made myself that black fuzzy hat in the post titled "Hats!"
A fried of mine said "Oooooohh!...Make me a hat?"
And make her a hat I did. And then her sister asked for a hat. This was about 6 months ago.
I made the hat yesterday. Gaby 0, Procrastination 1.
And so began my little business as hat maker. Although it's less of a business and more of a give-hats-to-my-friends-who-ask-for-them-and-possibly-charge-them-for-the-yarn. But, as I previously said, I don't usually buy yarn to make hats. I use yarn that I've either stolen from my friends, my sister (who is a knitter, incidentally. I will forever claim that we are not related) and from my mother's ancient, (and I mean ANCIENT) stash of wool, which includes actual 30 year old handspun wool.
It didn't smell so good, to tell you the truth. Had a sort of...musty, wool-a-l'ancienne rather pungent scent. Then, I found teeny tiny worms in the wool and we had to decontaminate it with mothballs.
Yuck.
So I'm guessing you really didn't want to know that. And those of you in western civ potentially reading this are not paying any attention to your professor at the moment because you're desperately hoping for more tales about nasty bugsies.
Sorry to disappoint.
Anywhozzles, here's the other hat I promised I would post:

Same hat. Different models.
Ooooooh! Sneaky ;)
This is the hat I made for my friend's sister, who is also my friend but all this talk of friends is making me want to sink into the depths of facebook and never surface so I think I'll just get on to the pattern.
Very simple, very similar to my other hat.
Oh, and sorry for the horrible quality of the photos. I took them with my phone's camera and despite that fact that it takes great pictures for a cameraphone, the quality is still really really bad. Not to mention they both just went through photoshop for some slight light editing so that you can actually see what colors the hat it.
Alright. Moving on.

Materials: (oh, and I'm also playing around with the HTML instead of clicking "bold" because that's too easy XD) GO html course!
Worsted weight yarn (color A)
Sport weight yarn (if you want to follow the exact same pattern, the blue is slightly thinner than the cream)(color B)
Size 5 crochet hook (google what size that is in international sizing. I'm too lazy.)

Abbreviations (have you ever wondered why the word "Abbreviate" is so damn long? I haven't)
Sl st: slip stitch
dc: double crochet
sc: single crochet
ch: chain
trc: triple (or treble, if you will) crochet

Instructions:
1. Chain 6 with color A. Sl st into first ch to form a ring.
2. 12 dc into center of ring. Join with a sl st. (round 1)
3. 2 dc into each dc. Join with a sl st. (round 2)
4. 1 dc into first dc. *2 dc into next dc, 1 dc into next dc*. Repeat from *. Join with a sl st. (round 3)
5. 1 dc into first 2 dc. *2 dc into next dc, 1 dc into next 2 dc*. Repeat from *. Join with a sl st. (round 4)
6. 1 dc into first 3 dc. *2 dc into next dc, 1 dc into next 3 dc*. Repeat from *. Join with a sl st. (round 5)
7. By this point, if you're using the proper thickness of yarn, the top should be looking fairly big. If it still looks obsenely small, continue increasing (2 dc into 1, 1 dc into next 4 dc) etc...Don't do more than 6 increase rounds.
8. 1 dc into each dc. Repeat round until hat is 1 1/2 inches shorter than desired length (so keep trying it on).
9. When hat is 1 1/2 inches shorter than desired length, switch to color B.
10. With color B, 1 dc into each dc. (to get the spiky looking pattern, don't crochet into the little loops on top, chain into the space between double crochets.)
11. 1 sc into each dc (this time, chain into the two little loops of each dc).
12. Switch back to color A and 1 sc into each sc. Tie off, and thread yarn through inside of hat.

And there you go! A beeaautiful hat that's actually warm and cozy enough for these crazy Montreal winters!

For the flower:
1. ch 6 in Color A, keeping a 6 inch tail. Join with a sl st to form ring.
2. 9 sc into ring.
3. Switch to color B.* Ch 3, 3 trc into first sc, sl st into next sc*. Repeat for remaining sc. You should have about 7 or 8 petals.
4. Thread tail from color A through hat, tying flower securely onto hat (you can figure this out. If not, ask your sister or mom to do it).

So, there you have it. This hat took me about 2 hours to make, but once you get the hang of it, you can whip one up in no time.
Now, I have to go finish my best friend's birthday present. Let's just hope the final product is WOW worthy.

Ta!

Hats!!

I recently discovered that making crocheted hats is ridiculously easy and ridiculously fun. However, I'm writing this in the computer lab at my school and I left the hat I just finished in my locker which is four floors down and I'm too lazy to go get it.
Oh wait, I just found one that I made last year in my bag XD
So yes, I am aware that it looks like a misshapen bladder or something but it's really very comfortable and looks like a cute lil' beanie.
Don't ever let me say that again.
On second thought, this is going to take a lot longer than expected seeing as my phone is refusing to send me photos and the internet is really really REALLY slow because everyone here is using it since the majority of people don't have class right now (yay Activity Period!).Oh wait, it's uploading! AWESOME!
So.
Here we go:

So clearly the thing I made is that black fuzzy cap on top of her head (this is a friend of mine who reads my block during western civ XD) It's a very simple pattern.

Materials:
Worsted Weight Yarn
Size 5 or 4.5 crochet hook

Abbreviations
Hdc: half double crochet
Sl st: Slip stitch

Instructions:
1. Chain 6 and join with a sl ch in first ch to form a loop
2. Hdc 8 st into the center of ring. Join with a sl st.
3. 2 hdc into each hdc from previous round. Join with a sl st.
4. 1 hdc into first hdc, *2 hdc in next hdc, 1 hdc in next hdc*. Repeat from *. Join with a sl st.
5. 1 hdc into first 2 hdc. *2 hdc in next hdc, 1 hdc in next 2 hdc*. Repeat from *. Join with a sl st.
6. 1 hdc into first 3 hdc. *2 hdc in next hdc, 1 hdc in next 3 hdc*. Repeat from *. Join with a sl st.
7. 1 hdc into first 4 hdc. *2 hdc in next hdc, 1 hdc in next 4 hdc*. Repeat from *. Join with a sl st.
8. 1 hdc into first 5 hdc. *2 hdc into next hdc, 1 hdc into next 5 hdc*. Repeat from *. Join with a sl st.
9. 1 hdc into each hdc (repeat for next few rows until your hat is as long as you want it to be. And there you have it! The perfect recipe for a custom beanie. On the plus side, you can use this pattern for practically any material you want. Try it in wool, acrylic...acrylic...or acrylic. There are lots of different kinds of acrylic so you're pretty much keeping your options open anyway. The best way to make this hat is to not buy the yarn. Steal it from a store, your friends (especially those who knit. Be nice to your friends who crochet), use scraps, a smallish ball of a previously larger ball. I guess what I'm saying is that its not really worth paying 6 dollars for a ball of yarn to make this hat. Besides, the best projects are made of scraps. You know why? Because you get to keep them. And because I'm writing this on my android (android> iPhone), my thumbs are starting to hurt. You'll see the other hat in a few hours. Ta!